The week-long National Day holiday has witnessed some 90 million tourists traveling across the country, a record high since the first "Golden Week" holiday in 2000.

The mass movement brought 34.6 billion yuan (US$4.2 billion) worth of income to shops, restaurants, hotels, scenic spots and various businesses related to the tourist industry, which were hit hard by the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) earlier this year.

The tourist arrivals nationwide from October 1 to 7 jumped by 11.5 percent over the same period last year, with their spending up 13.1 percent, the National Tourism Administration announced yesterday.

Air carriers have benefited greatly from the travel boom, with 1.65 billion yuan (US$200 million) in volume reported during the week, up 29.9 percent year on year. The railways also took a pleasing share with over 1 billion yuan (US$128 million) worth of fares, up 6 percent.

The gain is also an all-time high since the State authority began week-long holidays, known as Golden Week for International Day of Labor in May and National Day in October every year in 2000.

"We are proud to declare that we have made exciting achievements economically and socially in this Golden Week," said Sun Gang, executive director of the National Holiday Office assigned by the administration.

Nobody dared to say anything like that during the Labor Day holiday starting on May 1 this year when Beijing, shadowed by the deadly epidemic of SARS, was empty of tourists.

Tourism income across the country plummeted, since people had to stay home for fear of the extremely contagious virus.

(China Daily October 9, 2003)